The zone integrates essential visitor services with landscape design that harmonizes with the natural topography, water, and light to create a rich and welcoming experience.
Zoo & Recreational Zone — Gabon City of Democracy
Libreville, Gabon
2024
As the only fully public-facing component of the City of Democracy, the Zoo and Recreational Zone in Libreville blends biodiversity, play, and cultural memory into a landscape of encounter. It’s a place where nature teaches, recreation heals, and community gathers — a green pulse within the civic fabric.
Project Detail
Client
Summa
Status
Ongoing
Sector
Arts & Culture, Civic, Master Planning
Discipline
Architecture, Interior Design
2024
The zoo’s entrance offers a warm and inviting welcome, setting the tone for a memorable experience within.
A Public Heart in a Civic Plan
While the City of Democracy hosts halls of power and diplomacy, its truest measure of impact lies in its public realm. The Zoo & Recreational Zone, nestled at the edge of the masterplan, opens its gates to every citizen, child, and traveler, inviting them into a place of discovery, inclusion, and joy.
More than an amenity, this zone represents a commitment to collective well-being, where ecology meets education, and leisure meets landscape.
The masterplan showcases The Zoo & Recreational Zone’s blend of nature, leisure, and learning.
Nature as Nationhood — A Civic Landscape for Learning and Leisure.
Spanning 15 hectares, the zone combines immersive wildlife habitats, educational facilities, and diverse recreational spaces designed for both activity and reflection.
Spatial Ecology: Zoning with Intention
Spread across 15 hectares, the zone is divided into a series of interrelated spaces, each carefully programmed for both activity and reflection: Zoo & Biomes: Three immersive biomes: Savannah, Wetlands, Tropical Forest , Species-specific zones: Big cats, birds, primates, reptiles , Educational hubs, signage systems, and guided visitor paths, Veterinary center, training kitchen, conservation facilities, Recreational Anchors , Adventure playgrounds and open-air sports courts , Open-air gym and community club house , Lake promenade and shaded resting terraces
Support & Services
Ticketing, security, lost-and-found, retail gift shop, Multi-functional restaurant, animal-themed café, restrooms, Parking, maintenance, and accessible circulation routes. Everything is tied together by landscape design that respects Gabon’s existing topography, integrating water, canopy, and light to enrich the visitor experience.
We protect what we love, and we love what we know. — Baba Dioum
The Zoo focuses on engagement and education, offering interactive experiences that inspire visitors to understand, care for, and protect the natural world.
A Pedagogy of Play: Learning Through Wonder
The Zoo is not built around spectacle, but around engagement — inviting visitors to observe, understand, and care for the natural world. Educational elements include: Interactive exhibits & thematic signage, Animal care demonstrations , A dedicated Ecological Learning Center , Spaces designed for school visits and family interaction. The aim is not only entertainment, but consciousness-building: to foster a generation that sees the Earth as home, not resource.
Gateway to Nature: Entrance of the Zoo Center at City of Democracy,
This area serves as a restorative public garden, where biophilic design elements invite visitors to slow down, connect with nature, and rejuvenate.
Landscape as Healing
Winding paths, soft-ground walkways, shaded benches, water features and native vegetation form a biophilic choreography. Even without entering any facility, one can walk, breathe, and reconnect with the rhythm of nature. The natural pond supports both biodiversity and reflection, shaded lounges and picnic zones create community anchors, soundscaping and material textures enhance sensory wellness. This part of the City of Democracy becomes a public garden, a restorative terrain where the pace of civic life can slow, reflect, and rejuvenate.
The zone follows a One Planet Living framework, integrating sustainable design, resource efficiency, and cultural harmony to ensure long-lasting, eco-conscious operations.
Sustainable Operations, Circular Design
From planning to execution, the zone operates within a One Planet Living framework: Natural habitat preservation and animal welfare, on-site composting and waste management, passive design principles in all buildings , solar-powered lighting and water-efficient irrigation , locally sourced construction and educational employment. Each infrastructure is designed for longevity, modularity, and integration with both environment and culture.
The Zoo & Recreational Zone provides an accessible, welcoming space that fosters connection, joy, and a sense of belonging through its living landscapes.
A Civic Gift to the People
The Zoo & Recreational Zone offers a counterpoint to formality, a space of belonging. It is accessible, welcoming, and deeply rooted in the local identity. In doing so, it extends the promise of democracy into the everyday — not through words, but through paths, trees, and shared laughter. It is w here Gabon’s youngest citizens can find their first awe, and where global visitors can meet its heartbeat — not in marble halls, but in living landscapes.
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